SAN FRANCISCO — Hawaii ag-tech startup Smart Yields launched its mobile app today. The launch was announced by CEO Vincent Kimura in Silicon Valley this afternoon, from the stage of the annual Interactive Week event hosted by the Elemental Excelerator (formerly Energy Excelerator).
The app is the latest tool developed by Smart Yields, which is building an agriculture technology platform that gives farmers, indoor growers and gardeners real-time information, trends and forecasts, and recommendations to increase their yields.
“Today I’m proud to launch our app to 2,000 external beta users,” said Smart Yields’ CEO Vincent Kimura. “We’re committed to using real-world feedback from growers to make the app even easier to use, and in a format that will easily transcend any language.
“This is in addition to new pilots we’re running with major growers in Hawaii and on the U.S. mainland,” Kimura added. “One installation in Colorado alone expects to see its productivity increase twenty-fold.”
Today Smart Yields also launched a new web site at www.smartyields.com. The site provides information on Smart Yields technology, including its hardware and software solutions, as well as background on the company and its diverse team of founders and advisors.
Smart Yields has raised more than half a million dollars in support of its vision to give farmers flexible yet powerful tools to help protect crops, optimize operations, and increase yields. The seed equity funding came from a mix of angel investors, accelerators, family and friends, with more than half of the capital coming from investors in Asia.
In February, Smart Yields was accepted into the go-to-market track of the latest cohort of the Elemental Excelerator, which invests up to $1million in innovative startups that impact people’s lives: water, agriculture, transportation, and energy. Meanwhile, Smart Yields this year is expanding its education initiatives, bringing its technology into classrooms and school gardens to boost student engagement in STEM fields.
“Smart Yields is a Hawaii startup with global potential, and we’re excited to see its growth and ongoing success with this launch,” said Lauren Tonokawa, communications lead for the Elemental Excelerator. “Agriculture is an important area for us, and for our shared vision to sustainably enhance communities and transform our infrastructure.”
About Smart Yields
Smart Yields is an agriculture technology platform for farmers, indoor growers and gardeners, featuring an intuitive and customizable mobile app. While designed to be simple and easy to use, Smart Yields connects with a wide-variety of sensors and hardware and taps a diverse array of data sets and agronomy best practices to give farmers a flexible yet powerful tool to help protect crops, optimize operations, and increase yields. Founded in 2015, Smart Yields was part of the sixth cohort of the Blue Startups accelerator program and is part of the 2017 cohort of the Elemental Excelerator. For more information, visit smartyields.com.
